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Scientist and Tea Party candidate: world never in danger from Japanese reactor

by Jack Minor

A controversial scientist who ran as a Tea Party candidate last year says media claims regarding the danger from nuclear power are not based on sound science and the US was never in danger from radiation caused by the Japanese nuclear power plant accidents.

Art Robinson possesses a doctorate in Chemistry and has several children with degrees in nuclear engineering. He is also the author of the Robinson Curriculum; designed for homeschoolers K-12. He is also a co-founder, along with Linus Pauling, of the Institute of Orthomolecular Medicine.

Robinson also sponsored the petition project. The project is a list of over 31,000 scientists including over 9,000 with PhD’s who state there is no evidence that human beings are contributing to global warming. By contrast the UN reports that 2,500 scientists have stated there is global warming.

During the 2010 election Robinson ran as a Tea Party candidate against incumbent, Peter DeFazio. Robinson is a strong proponent of nuclear power and other clean energy.

When asked about the nuclear power plant in Japan following a 7.4 magnitude earthquake, Robinson said, “A nuclear power plant was struck by the largest earthquake in a thousand years and a wall of water 50 or 70 feet high. As far as I know, no one has received a dangerous amount of radiation. There were 25,000 people killed by the tidal wave. The Japanese did a phenomenal job and got control of it without any real harm. They did a great job and should be proud of how they handled it.”

A recent report said that three of the six reactors had actually melted down. Radiation is also seeping into the atmosphere immediately surrounding the plant. New data indicates that the radiation released in the hours following the disaster was equal to around 20 percent of the emissions from the single reactor at Chernobyl.

Regarding alarmists who said the meltdown would result in lethal levels of radiation across the globe Robinson said, “All this hype is an attempt to demonize nuclear power.” Prior to the report of the three reactors melting down he said that even if the reactors had melted down the radiation situation would not have changed significantly. Robinson also said critics of nuclear power don’t take into account how many people have been saved by the power generated by the plants.

Robinson noted that in the two months since the Japanese reactor accident approximately 7,000 Americans died in automobile accidents and no one is suggesting banning cars. “In the United States we have 104 reactors that have been in use for 30 years and not one person has lost their life in a reactor accident.”

“There is no chance whatsoever of harmful radiation reaching us here in the United States. It would be diluted in the air long before it gets here.” The EPA confirmed Robinson’s comment saying that the meager amounts detected in Colorado and other states were far below danger limits. In a statement the agency said all of the radiation levels detected “have been very low, are well below any level of public health concern, and continues to decrease over time.”

When asked about the radiation death toll from Chernobyl he had a shocking answer. “Mothers aborted their unborn children based on media concerns, the plant only killed 31 but tens of thousands were killed by unprincipled reporting.”

He said the Chernobyl plant was not responsibly built yet in spite of that, the death toll was still low.

It actually is true that abortions did increase in certain countries after Chernobyl. However because they don’t ask the reason for an abortion, for example are you getting this abortion because you are scared by the media reports that you might have a mutant baby or is it just your choice?, the NCH states that the increase could have merely been the fact that young women were using abortions as birth control.
Do you have a non-annotated version of your interview?

He says 30 years??? The first commercial nuclear
reactor was in operation by 1958 as I recall. And
there were two deaths involving an experimental
reactor in the early 60’s in Idaho.

Nuclear power has other risks other than the odd
overt explosion or meltdown. Rod processing and
manufacture has it risks and can result in people
excreting uranium. And mining of the natural ore
surely results in a lung burden of alpha emitting
particles.

But of course the miners is likely of some lower
socio-economic class and hence is not important.
And the workers around the rods are likely
pretty well paid so the risks aren’t overly important
in the grand structure of things. Plus it is hard
to count the extra burden of cancer and health
effects of additional radiation without looking
quite carefully.

A hedge fund manager from New York City spent $186,000 trying to buy Art Robinson a seat in congress last November.
Why would someone in NY want to interfer with Oregon politics?
Re-call the supreme Court and take our country back from these greedy “patriots”.